What is your ideal self? What does it mean to be your highest self?
i don't believe in things that are ideal. i have no conception of an ideal self or a highest self. i can't even imagine if someone THINKS s/he's ever going to be an ideal anything, or the highest anything, s/he is not only delusional but aiming at the wrong thing. how about just being as good as you can be? why isn't that okay?
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For me, it's a continually unfolding process of becoming aware of, confronting, processing, and (eventually--hopefully) shedding unskillful traits: I don't need to be upset about this, I don't need to resent so-and-so for that, I don't need to be judgmental over this, etc. The more I strip away, the freer, easier, and more me I feel.
So far, whenever something gets peeled away, there is always more to discover. I'm not concerned with whether there is an "end"; I'm content with the process.
I've posted this before on similar questions.
But it's one that I really try to live by.
I feel the best about myself when I do these things.
I'm awfully fond of that. It's incredibly elegant.
To recognize your own lies to yourself. We all have two voices and we actually talk with our selves. I recall when my other voice let me know I was not happy yet I provided rational to defend my other position which included the world around me. But the sacrifice was notable. Always striving to be true to myself brought me into spiritualism , the discovery of who I really am. That oneness includes hearing your own lie.
I recall giving a presentation and hated the company I worked for as well as the product. I stood up and just said fuck it to myself and quit on the spot. Wrong move for my family and responsibilities but I KNEW that all would be well if I was truthful with me. And of course it was all well. To detect your own myths and recognize which of the two voices is really you, that is oneness. I am science buff and that knowledge was instrumental in confirming truth.
Great question and a lot of thought.
I don't have an ideal self. I have my self-image of who I am. That's pretty fictional enough. Then I guess on top of that, I create my own myth about who I am. I guess that is my "ideal" self. But how grounded it is in reality? God, I have no idea.
It isn't my ideal self that concerns me. It is more realistic assessment of who I am that concerns me. As my favorite protagonist said: "Face the fact. Then act." Facing the fact necessarily includes my honest self-assessment of what I am and what I am able to do.
I try to hold myself to an ethical standard that I'll probably never fully realize, but to do no harm and to help where I reasonably can — and to be always kind to children and animals. And I strive to be thoughtful, to know and understand and not act unthinkingly. If I can achieve those things, I'll consider my life to have been a success.
Well, probably not what I am right now.
My ideal self is to be Chris Hemsworth but since that job is already taken by Chris Hemsworth I'm stuck being me.
My Ego Fizzled a long time ago... what's left is a work in progress and subject to modifications.
Being present, mindful, and kind, to myself and to others. Ideally getting away from an "ideal," because life keeps changing. To quote a phrase, it's the journey as much as the destination. Maybe more so.
That's really nice! I like that.